Tag Archives: Environment Canada

Rain, snow and wind could delay the opening of the lobster season in southwest Nova Scotia. Lobster Fishing Areas 33 and 34 are expected to make a decision about whether to go ahead with Monday’s “dumping day” late Saturday morning. Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for Halifax, Lunenburg and Queens counties because of a low pressure system that’s expected to bring rain and snow over the weekend. But if the weather is fine, boats piled high with lobster traps in LFA 34 will leave the wharves at 6 a.m. and in LFA 33, at 7 a.m. Whether or not fishermen will be setting their traps on Monday, the province is reminding people who make their living on the water to be safe. Read the rest here 08:52

The federal government is still investigating an experiment off the West Coast almost four years ago aimed at boosting salmon stocks that sparked an international outcry. Now a former director and operations officer of Haida Salmon Restoration Corp. says he wants to carry out another ocean-fertilizing exercise, this time off South America. Jason McNamee says the company Oceaneos, where he serves as chief operations officer, has been in talks about fertilizing the ocean with iron with the Chilean government, which could not be reached for comment. In July 2012, the now-inactive Haida Salmon Restoration travelled to international waters near the islands of Haida Gwaii where it dumped 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the water in an effort to restore waning salmon stocks. Read the rest here 08:26

Environment Canada has issued a tropical cyclone information statement for Newfoundland in relation to tropical storm Kate. The weather office says Kate is transitioning to a post-tropical storm and will have no direct effects over land. However, it will give bring strong winds to the southern Grand Banks today. The system is about 720 kilometres south of Cape Race, with maximum sustained winds of 110 km per hour. Its current movement is east-northeast at 56 km/hour. Environment Canada also says waves near seven metres are possible not far from the storm centre. Read the rest here 11:15

Canadian scientists warn of artificial sweeteners in oceans. It means that up to 72 metric tonnes (160,000 pounds) of sweetener are pouring into Lake Erie. Because the sweeteners — used in products like diet soda, chewing gum, yogurt and as sugar replacements in tea and coffee to avoid weight gain — cannot be broken down by the human body, the artificial sweeteners pass right through. They cannot be broken down by wastewater treatment plants either, meaning the undiluted sweeteners enter the water supply used as drinking water for humans and animals. Read the rest here 10:08

“All other industries have been able to comply with the general provisions of this act and still remain viable,” Bill Ernst, a former toxicologist with Environment Canada, told reporters on Tuesday. “In my opinion, the reason that the changes are being made is just to reduce the oversight of Environment Canada, who is the administrator of that section of the [Fisheries] Act and allow the industry more free access to some of the higher-risk chemicals” used to kill sea lice. Read the rest here 15:06

Environment Canada lacks the resources to keep critical weather monitoring stations up and running throughout the year off the B.C. central coast, putting commercial and recreational mariners at risk as they enter one of the B.C. coast’s most dangerous stretches of open water. Read the rest here 08:32:10

A Calais man waived indictment and pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to making a false statement to federal agents in connection with the illegal use of a pesticide in Canada five years ago. Read the rest here 09:31

A team of environmental researchers is trying fill some of the knowledge gaps in exploring for oil and gas in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the preliminary results give some idea of how vulnerable western Newfoundland’s coastline might be to a spill. Read more here 10:34

Dylan Fraser and David Meerburg are independent scientists who were part of a 23-member panel that reviewed a risk assessment document from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. AquaBounty is producing eggs in Bay Fortune, P.E.I. for salmon that are genetically-modified to grow twice as fast as regular salmon.The eggs are exported to Panama to be grown into full-size fish. The American company has applied to the U.S. FDA to be allowed to sell the fish as food in the U.S. AquaBounty applied to Environment Canada to export the eggs commercially if it gets that FDA approval. The P.E.I. plant has been operating as a research facility, but Environment Canada has approved it for commercial production. [email protected] 19:26

What seemed like a step towards approving the world’s first genetically modified (GM) creature for human consumption a few days ago actually “doesn’t change anything,” according to a spokesman for AquaBounty Technologies, which has been trying to bring a transgenic salmon to market for years. Last week, the company got permission from Environment Canada to ramp up production of salmon eggs from research levels to greater commercial quantities. [email protected]

As the Fukushima nuclear power plant continues to leak radioactive material, what does that mean for fish caught in the Pacific Ocean off the BC coast? Environment Canada says there’s nothing to worry about right now. [email protected] 10:41

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here

The Newfoundland and Labrador government has reached an agreement with a company called Grieg Newfoundland AS that could this see province rival British Columbia in aquaculture production. Municipal Read More »